In order to make your business and its processes more quantifiable and measurable, you need to break it down into three components. Successfully addressing these aspects will make you profitable. They are:

1. Price it right. You have to price your services and projects accurately.
2. Produce it right. You have to deliver your services and projects as you price them or you have to price them as you produce them.
3. Produce enough of it. You have to have enough revenue to cover all of your costs.

If you do these three things, you will make money. If you aren’t making enough money, you can trace the problem to one of these.

In this article, I want to address the first of these three elements: pricing services and projects accurately. We’ll use what I call the Bid Recap Report to help us benchmark our pricing.

The bid recap report.

I use this report to recap and review bids. It helps me ensure that my pricing is in line with the appropriate green industry benchmarks. We’ll use a five-day residential landscape installation project to illustrate this report. Editor’s note: View the report on lawnandlandscape.com by searching “bid recaps.”

The cost for the materials on this project includes sales tax, delivery fees and a 5 percent warranty, total $6,439. The 160 labor-hours for the job, including overtime and a 25 percent labor burden, cost $24 each for a total of $3,840.

The equipment costs a total of $1,370. The total direct cost (TDC) for this project is $11,649. We then add $18 per labor-hour (160 x $18 = $2,880) for general and administrative overhead to the TDC and obtain a break-even point (BEP) of $14,529.

A price of $18,161 is calculated when we add a 20 percent net profit margin (or a 25 percent markup) to the BEP. Once we calculate these figures, we can then apply green industry benchmarks to this bid.

Bid analysis.

This bid appears fairly normal except for the material intensity of the job. This means the cost of the materials is somewhat higher than the average landscape installation job.

This higher cost is probably driven by expensive trees, specimen plants or both being used on the project. It shows up in two other important areas.

First, the GPM is low. It should be near 40 percent. I’d probably add three to five additional points to the 20 percent NPM in the bid. It also blows away the theory that you can multiply your material costs in a job by a factor of 2 to arrive at a good price for it. Here we have to multiply the material costs by minimum factor of three.

Conclusion.

A Bid Recap Report provides us with the ability to compare our pricing for an individual bid to all of our bids. However, you must remember that industry benchmarks will vary due to the type of work.

Also, remember that benchmarks are mere starting points. You need to calculate your own company benchmarks to make them accurate. Next time we will discuss job costing.

Most people like watching wildlife but they don’t want deer chomping on their shrubs or geese fouling their lawns.

“You don’t want to lose a client if they come to you for help,” says Herrick Mann, president and owner of H.A.M. Landscaping in Cleveland. “After 20 years of researching and experimenting what works in our area, the service has evolved into a line item on our maintenance contracts.”

Many of the techniques for wildlife management are an extension of landscape services you already provide like choosing the right plant for the right place and using appropriate products to problem-solve.

“There are no magic potions,” says Scott Hygnstrom, extension wildlife specialist at the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point. “You need an integrated approach using various tools, techniques and products.”

Modify the habitat.

It’s not always possible to change the existing environment, but there are ways to make it less inviting. Fencing is the most reliable method of keeping deer out. For targeted protection, place cages, tubes or hardware cloth around individual plants to protect vulnerable young trees from browse damage, Hygnstrom says.

For new plantings, chose varieties that are less tasty to deer.

“They’ll eat anything when they’re hungry and there’s intense competition for food,” says Paul Curtis, extension wildlife specialist at Cornell University. “But there are some they’re less likely to dine on.”

That short list includes thorny or aromatic plants such as junipers, boxwood, barberry, American holly and Japanese pieris. In areas with high deer populations, avoid their favorites such as hostas, arborvitae, roses, yews, day lilies, azalea, rhododendrons, tulips and crocuses.

Make a site less attractive to geese by planting vegetative buffers along the waterline.

“Geese will not feel safe if they can’t see predators approaching on either side of the buffer,” says Marci Hower, co-owner of Ohio Geese Control, a company that handles trained border collies for geese management. The buffer should include a variety of native grasses, shrubs and trees that tolerate wet soil such as serviceberry, buttonbush, Red-osier dogwood, ninebark, spicebush and river birch.

Rock barriers along the waterline consisting of boulders two feet in diameter also deter geese because they prefer to walk out of the water on flat or sloping banks.

Use repellents.

One of the most commonly used tools for deer and geese is repellents.

“Adding repellents to your lineup is not a huge investment if you already offer chemical services,” Mann says. Most repellents are applied with either backpack or truck sprayers but some are granular. In many states, you’ll need a pesticide applicator’s license.

Repellents for deer are either odor-based, which emulate predator urine or feces, or taste-based. All ornamental plantings and trees must be treated, usually on a monthly basis. The most effective treatments are generally those made from putrescent egg solids, Curtis says.

Spraying programs usually start in early spring and go through fall.

“We find that using a variety of products and rotating between products works best for us,” says Steve Walker, maintenance operations manager with The Pattie Group in Novelty, Ohio. “Different deer seem to have different tastes or get acclimated to product taste.”

Goose repellents consist of either methyl anthranilate, which make grass taste bad, or anthraquinone, which causes stomach upset.

Products must be applied regularly according to instructions from early spring to fall. Initial application timing is crucial, Mann says, since nesting begins February to mid-April and geese won’t budge once they’ve nested.

Incorporate other methods.

Herding dogs are highly effective for geese, Hower says.

“Border collies possess a wolf-like glare and appear to be stalking when they move, so geese don’t feel safe staying around.”

Typically, the dogs are deployed several times a day from February to June and from August through fall. Geese molt in early summer and cannot fly so herding is not done during this period. Some landscape businesses partner with specialty companies like these to subcontract out the work.

When it comes to having a successful landscape company, it’s important to hire good crew members to do the job and be the faces of the company in the field. They’re in the public eye every day and because of this, it’s easy to overlook the back office employees – the ones who often go faceless to the customers who call in.

However, it’s important to remember that they’re equally, if not more, important to keeping your business afloat.

Take Kelly Anne Zynn for example. As one of 96 employees at Green Lawn Fertilizing, Zynn started off as an office associate seven years ago, moving to office manager a few years later.

“We lost our office manager and realized we needed somebody with some experience, as well as a get-it-done type of person. She fit the mold,” says Tom Knopsnyder, vice president of operations at the West Chester, Pennsylvania, company.

Knopsnyder credits Zynn with changing the culture in the office to a more structured setting. She’s put office systems into place and created training manuals for different positions so everyone knows what they’re expected to do.

“She was given this leadership role because she exceeded expectations,” says Matt Jesson, president and owner of the company.

People don’t call their landscape company to thank them. They typically call for an estimate, a service or more improvements to be done. While this monotony may get to people after a while, Jesson says it doesn’t with Zynn.

“Kelly has an amazing, positive attitude,” he says. “She really sets the right tone for customer service. It starts with attitude, and she has a super positive one.”

A sunny disposition.

A positive attitude is important to have in the customer service field, but Zynn takes that to the next level.

“It’s customer service and I don’t mind at all. I love people, as crazy as that sounds,” she says. “When you talk to some people, they groan. I love my job. I love what I do. It makes it very easy when you love what you’re doing.”

And Jesson says it’s more than just her attitude. Zynn has done a lot to help the company, which crossed the $10 million revenue mark for 2015, something he credits to employees like her.

He says she led the office team, which handled more than 90,000 phone calls and helped to reduce cancellation by 500 year over year. “Her efforts have earned us the Angie’s List Super Service Award, the best of Home Advisor award and 4.6 stars out of 5 on Google,” Jesson says.

All in one place.

Because Green Lawn Fertilizing manages almost all of its business from the office, Zynn’s staff has a lot of tasks.

The company uses Real Green Systems software and Zynn attends the annual conference each year to bring back updates to teach to her staff of 10.

She’s created a training manual for the system to help her team know how to use it. She’s also worked with crews in the field to see what they treat and what products are used, so her employees have as much information about the business as possible.

When a new person is hired, Zynn takes them through the whole training manual, which takes about two weeks.

The manual itself is used to help her staff get through calls that could be difficult without needing to ask another coworker or supervisor for help. Zynn says she knows customers don’t like to be passed around and put on hold, so she tries to make the manual as detailed as possible so her team knows what to do with any call they get.

“I wrote down questions that I continually got when I was a (customer service representative),” she says. She labeled them FAQ and gave suggestions on the answers to give the customer. “You may not know exactly what you’re saying at the time, but the customer thinks you do. It makes them feel good. It empowers them,” she says.

Some work and some play.

While she’s a very strong employee and leader, Zynn also appreciates the fact that people sometimes need to let loose and have fun.

Knopsnyder says she puts together occasional social events for the company, such as a bowling night.

“She really builds a team atmosphere,” Jesson says. “She decorates the office for every holiday, brings in candy to share with the staff and organizes events like the Thanksgiving feast and ugly sweater holiday party.”

Despite her strong role with the company, Zynn is very humble about the part she plays.

“I didn’t get here by myself,” she says. “Not one person can do it all. One person doesn’t take the congratulations. It’s everybody.”

Zynn says it’s important to be involved with your employees. If they’re struggling with something, help them. If they want to apply for another job in house or at the corporate office, push them to move forward. And stay in tune with the people you work with.

“Be nosy,” she says. “Because knowledge is power.”